Upstream - Some of Us Are Going To Make It

Image from Melville House Publishing

... and some of us aren't.

We all dream we'll end up here, and maybe much more.

Fame, riches, groupies, talk shows...

Reality is, the whole writing business is extremely hard work, that for the majority of people who try it, doesn't pay off the way they hope or dream.


A lot of swimming upstream, only to be defeated by rushing water and exhaustion.

Or, perhaps, eaten by bears.



(IMO, they should pass a law that all nature documentaries like this are narrated by someone with that wonderful deep, sonorous voice, like David Attenborough here, "Eventually they have to go for it, despite the danger," while the dramatic music swells in the background.)

Just sayin.'

See, now you thought procrastination was the biggest threat to your writing career, when it's actually bears!

Yes, I'm using salmon as a metaphor for writers.  And if you click on either link you'll be directed to two other great A-Z writers who already wrote fabulous posts on how to use them.  (Didn't you just love that one bear at the end, mouth open, like he's saying, "Hey!  Get into my belly!)

As noted, some of the salmon did make it past the waterfall, past the bears, past the eagles and all the other things that tried to stop them.

But they don't have a chance if they don't keep swimming.




Maybe it's egotistical of me, to think that I can succeed where others fail, but I intend to keep swimming.  Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.  Maybe I will get eaten by bears, but this I know: only the fish that tried to swim upstream made it to their goal.

(I'm going to gracefully abandon the salmon metaphor now, and ask you to join me in pretending that those fish that made it all the way to the end did not just spawn and die anyway.)

Less than a week to go and we've reached the end of the A-Z Challenge!

Besides "just keep swimming," is there any metaphor that keeps you going?